Many nonprofit boards find that 6 to 9 directors can be more effective than a board of fifteen or more. As boards become smaller, the impact of each director grows. It’s not always easy to find new directors, and it takes time to onboard new people. All of this makes it crucial to get new nonprofit board members up to speed as quickly as possible. Here are seven resources every new board member should have on Day One.

In their Harvard Business Review article Managing Risks: A New Framework, Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes provide three qualitative distinctions among the types of risk organizations face. Two of these categories, preventable risks and strategy risks, are internal to the organization and so are within the control of the leadership. The third category includes risks from external sources; leadership may not control the risks, but they can prepare for them. Here’s how.

The agenda is a powerful tool for helping the board attend to what matters. The chair uses the agenda to help the board accomplish its work, make the best use of time, and filter out extraneous topics. Having the agenda at least a week in advance allows directors to plan local travel, read relevant documents, and begin thinking about issues to be discussed. The agenda provides staff with direction on what facilties and equipment to provide, what data might be needed, and what questions may be asked. Here are five parts of a meeting agenda for nonprofit boards that help make these things possible: